Power transmission components majorly consist of circuit breakers, switchgear, capacitors, transformers, insulators, relays, and power converters. The market for power transmission components is fuelled by the increasing demand for renewable energy along with its subsequent development. In terms of current type, the market has been segmented into high-voltage alternating current, i.e. HVAC, and high-voltage direct current, i.e. HVDC.

TMR, a market intelligence company, throws light on the prime advantages of HVDC over HVAC and discusses the ways in which HVDC has brought development within transmission systems for the distribution of electrical energy to its users.

Low Cost of Investment: An HVDC transmission line is relatively economical than an AC line for a similar transmission capacity. In addition, the cost of overhead cables and lines are also much lower in the case of HVDC. Furthermore, the maintenance and operation costs are also relatively lower in the case of HDVC.

Minimum Losses: An optimized HVDC transmission line is accompanied with lower losses as compared to AC lines in terms of power capacity. The losses that take place in converter stations are also taken into account here, but since they are merely about 0.6% of the transmitted power in each station, they don’t cause much fluctuation in power supply. In the broader picture, though, HVDC transmission power losses are lower than that of AC transmission.

Enables Long-distance Water Crossing: In case of a long AC cable transmission, the reactive power flow owing to big cable capacitance will restrain the maximum distance of transmission. On the other hand, in the case of HVDC, this limitation isn’t there even for long cable links and hence HVDC is a much more viable technical option. Examples include undersea cables transmission schemes such as the 250-km Baltic Cable between German and Sweden and the NorNed cable between the Netherlands and Norway, which is a massive 580 km in length.

Asynchronous Connection: In some cases, it is extremely difficult to connect 2 AC networks owing to reasons related to stability. In such cases, HVDC is a key source for exchange of power amongst the two networks. In addition, owing to the fact that HVDC permits power transmission between unsynchronized AC distribution systems, it may prevent cascading failures that may propagate from one part of a broader power transmission grid to another.

Hence, the demand for HVDC systems will rise in the coming years owing to it being more suitable in a wider range of applications than HVAC. In addition, the favorable industrial growth in emerging nations will raise the count of power plants, a key prerequisite for the development of the overall market for power transmission components. Eaton Corporation Plc, ABB Group, Emerson Electric Company, Hitachi, Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, General Electric Company, Siemens AG, and Schneider Electric SE, among others, are the key players operating in the market.